Britain's glorious seaside resorts in their heyday – and now

The start of summer once sparked a stampede for the UK seaside. Resorts across the country would groan with the weight of bucket-and-spade sunseekers.

The arrival of cheap flights to Europe, however, triggered the slow but unstoppable demise of the great British seaside resort. Efforts have been made to gussy them up, but, as the following slides show, the likes of Scarborough, Margate and Cleethorpes will never be the same...

Blackpool – then

A uniformed staff sargeant helps his grandchildren build a sandcastle. Just an ordinary day on Blackpool beach in the 1940s.